Songfacts®:

• The title of this seven-and-a-half minute homage to rural life refers to a network of interconnected roads known as the Dixie Highway that connect the US Midwest with the Southern United States. Part of it runs near Jackson's hometown of Newnan, Georgia and this song finds him recalling growing up there.
• This song features a contribution from Jackson's fellow Georgia native Zac Brown. The pair previously collaborated on The Zac Brown Band's hit single, "As She's Walking Away."
• The album title is linked to this song. Jackson explained: "There's this highway that's been in existence for forever now - it's called the Dixie Highway and it runs from north of Michigan all the way down to South Florida, and I wrote a song about it that's on the album. I grew up on Highway 34 outside of Newnan, Georgia, and that's where we came up with Thirty Miles West. I think we were about thirty miles west of the official part of the Dixie Highway that runs through Georgia."